Know thy enemy
by The GryffinSlytherRavenPuff
Summary: All humans will put their faith in one another. It is essential to their survival now. I am one of the trusted. I am also a traitor. Jamie/OC
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host.**

So... Let me introduce myself, my name is Alyssa Cari Rose. I'm human. 'Duh' you may be thinking or maybe 'oh no! I thought you were an alien' laced with sarcasm. Well let me tell you, right now there are many (or very few) humans who'd be saying that with the upmost sincerity. Why? Because their lives depend on it.

To them being human is like you're part of a secret club, membership binds you together with ropes stronger than steel. They can trust you with their darkest secrets, hopes and fears. Almost as if you are perfect, you can do no wrong. But they are foolish in believing that. Human nature is to lie, cheat and steal if that's what it takes to survive. And we are, after all, human.

Many of us can't be trusted.

I can't be trusted.

**Love it? Hate it? Want to throw a grenade at it so it blows up and never returns to Earth again? Tell me. You know what I'm going to say next. REVIEW!**


	2. Chapter 1  Stupid Puberty

**Ok I haven't read The Host in ages so please forgive me if there are a couple (or many) mistakes. Also in this fanfic Jamie and my OC are 15. Why? Because I felt like it. Whilst we're on this topic. I only own my OC and that is all. Thank you also to ****Cassie Stryder Hawthorne**** and ****great2read**** for reviewing.****HH**

They would end up being the death of me. That I was sure of. Who? Right I forgot I hadn't explained properly. You see, a couple of years ago these aliens appeared on Earth called 'Souls', we tried being nice to them. It worked out alright... For them. You see, their plan all along was to, take over our minds in a way. Realistically they are like bugs. Ok, not like that; more like... Think Magic Flying Carpet meets Centipede. How do I know? I witnessed one of their... 'Operations' let's call it: Where they transfer the parasite into the body of one of us humans. By accident of course, as if I'd want to see that. Any way, they chased me for a bit, I managed to escape. Ran as far as I could, ended up in some strange cave with a gun pointed at my head, courtesy of Kyle.

Anyway, my story's old news. _So last year._ Hot topic on 'The View' today is Jared Howe and Jamie Stryder. They turned up a couple of months ago. Although I've got no bloody idea how they figured out where we were. Meaning that Jeb had never told Jamie before and until they both turned up on his front step he'd never known Jared even existed. Well anyways, the question came up the other day from a very curious and concerned Sharon. It was met with dubious agreement and worry. I wasn't bitter about it. I mean it's not like I asked when they first showed up and was met with 'shut up Lyssa'. Not bitter about it at all.

As it turns out it was Melanie, sister of Jamie and girlfriend of Jared, who'd told them to come here. Which kinda sucks for the rest of us seeing as she probably has one of the little creepers in her now and could be leading them here at this very moment with one of those weird 'Aren't you pleased at how AWESOME it will be to have your mind taken over and used as a resting place for a slimy bug that will ultimately cease any and all activity or thoughts that make you, you! Your life is going to RULE!' smiles. They've given me nightmares for weeks...

ANYWAY I've been kind of rambling on quite a bit. Back to my original point. They're going to be the death of me. Jamie and Jared, that is. As I've previously mentioned, Mel knowing where we are could lead to the insects coming to us and then taking over our minds and blah blah blah you know the rest. I'm not 100% sure how that's Jamie and Jared's fault quite yet, but I've just got a feeling you know? No? You think I'm just being totally unfair and paranoid? Fair enough. You're just reading this from a screen on your computer. You wouldn't know how real this whole thing is. You don't know half of it... I'm not gonna tell you now. If I did that then I'd be spoiling half the story and bringing out all of my major plot twists and then from that point onwards the story would be boring because I've already explained all the interesting bits. That and as long as I don't tell you my trade secrets I can fool myself into thinking that I'm like some kind of awesome action hero who has an awesome background story that will just blow people's minds to hear about it.

Well back to my rambling boring dilemma of how to blame Jamie and Jared for my death. I didn't need to worry about that for long. As you shall see after the little line that is down there V

"OH MY GOD!" I managed to somehow get out between my many gasps for breath. Doubled over I motioned with my hand for Kyle, Jared and Ian to come over from where they were leisurely sitting in the kitchen fighting over what I supposed had been the last muffin, while an entertained Jamie munched casually over the food which they were arguing over. "You... will never... guess what just... happened... NOT YOU!" I shouted, pointing rudely at Jamie started to walk over towards us, "Just them... Jeb's... orders" I lied, Jeb hadn't told me to say anything. Actually he told me specifically NOT to say anything. Well nothing except that I needed to keep Jamie distracted while he and some other adults dealt with something important. _As if. _I mean, don't get me wrong, Jamie's awesome and everything, except I saw what was outside and there was no way I was missing it for anything.

"Why? What's happening?" Jamie asked me accusingly, narrowing his eyes, knowing that I was lying, Jeb never let me do anything that Jamie couldn't.

"Nothing that you need to worry your little head over" I cooed mockingly, messing up his hair, a habit that I had taken to doing often. Just to show off the fact that I was taller than him. Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to do that for long. Bloody kid was catching up. Fast. Stupid puberty.

I ran off before he could retaliate.

My master plan didn't work out. I figured that if I showed up with Jared and them all, Jeb wouldn't notice me and let me stay. Boy was I wrong. He kicked me out (or should I say in?) before I even got within 100 metres of the object lying on the ground. Sigh. Being fifteen can be so boring. No one lets you do anything. Oh well. I'd bug Kyle or Ian for answers later, they always told me everything in the end. With one final glare in the direction of Jeb's back I turned around and back towards Jamie. Might as well try to get to the food before he did. Damn kid ate everything in sight. Stupid Puberty.

I happened get inside before all the food had disappeared Thank God. There was still hardly anything left though. We'd have to go on another raid soon. Note to self: Bug Jeb about letting me go on this one. I looked out the window to see everyone arguing again. Oh what I wouldn't give to be out there and get all the juicy details. Tomorrow. I decided.

I walking back to my room I was very much annoyed. It was one of those stinking hot nights where it's just as hot at night as it is during the day. On my way through the caves back to my little roomy thing (which I half shared with Jamie, We made a little wall barrier between them so you couldn't really tell) I happened to spot Jamie in his room. With his shirt off. Couldn't blame him, actually I'd deem him insane if he still had it on, seeing as he was wearing one with long sleeves before and I don't mean to sound weird and creepy either but DAMN! A six-pack? Jamie was hot! Wait... What? Since when was Jamie hot?

Stupid puberty.

**Well what do you think? It sounds kinda different(ish) to the summary and prologue but it will get into that kindof thing soon. And REVIEW PLEASE!**


	3. Chapter 2 Different

**Right first the disclaimer: I do not own The Host.**

**Now that that's out of the way, I wanted to thank my two reviewers Cassie Stryder Hawthorn and great2read again for reviewing the last chapter. **

**Just to be clear: This story is going through the events of the book, it's just being told through the eyes of someone else.**

**And please tell me if you see any mistakes. Now to the story.**

I quickly exited the room, secret agent style. That is to say, quickly and quietly. Jamie was sleeping and if he woke he'd ask questions. Something tells me that everyone else wouldn't be very happy with me if I brought him along. On my way out I checked myself out in the mirror. Not in that way, I just wanted to look intimidating. I couldn't pull the scary frowny face like Sharon and Maggie so I just had to look as tough as I could. It wasn't that easy you know. I'm the shortest person here.

Oh well, enough time wasting. I brushed my hair back away from my face then took off.

Jeb pushed it through the door. It's times like this that I am extremely thankful for my natural pushy behaviour. I wouldn't miss this confrontation for anything. Can't you picture it? It's like some kindof massive love triangle, except no ones in love so it's kind of like a... hate triangle? Heres the formula:

You have one body: This being Jamie's legendary sister Melanie.

One soul, which has invaded the said sisters mind.

One large, armed angry mob of humans who want the soul dead... And Melanie if they have to.

One confused ex, torn between the desire to kiss the body and hack at it with a knife.

One uncle, who clearly can't tell the difference between a centipede and his niece.

One doctor, who wants to try yet another attempt at separating soul from body. All previous tries failed miserably.

... And me. Who can for the first time say that they are just an innocent bystander in all this.

Melanie looked nervous. I don't blame her. One of the closest people to her was holding a machete and fully intended to kill her with it. Anyway I don't think I needn't have worried about how menacing Kyle looked as its eyes wandered straight past him... And landed on Jared.

"Jared" it managed to croak out, before running towards him at full speed, arms outstretched as if he were a magnet. I was actually quite surprised. Jared let it get fairly close to him before he punched it. It was quite funny really.

Jeb picked it up off the ground while Jared stood there looking angry. The same expression he'd had when we told him we found Melanie's body. It was getting quite old.

After a short awkward silence, Doc managed to make his way through the crowd. Everyone parted for him, even Kyle and Ian moved. Reluctantly, of course. They, aside from Jeb and now Jared, were closest to the parasite.

"Okay, okay, I'm here. What have we got?" Doc asked in a cheery voice.

Maggie appeared form behind his elbow, "Jeb found it in the desert. Used to be our niece Melanie. It seemed to be following the directions he gave her." She ended with a dark look at Jeb. He didn't flinch. I would've, Aunt Maggie could be scary when she wanted.

"Mm-hm, Mm-hm" Doc mumbled studying the creature while reaching out one hand.

The alien flinched back away from him. _Coward_.

"It's okay, I won't hurt you" Doc encouraged it. _Liar._ He started examining Mel- _it._ Finally he stopped and told us what he thought. "She looks healthy enough, aside from some recent exhaustion, dehydration, and malnourishment. I think you've put enough water in her so that the dehydration won't interfere. Okay then, let's get started."

"Yay" I mumbled, "more goo to clean up off the floor."

Sharon, who was the only person close enough to hear me, looked at me sharply.

"What?" I defended, "It's always me who has to clean up the dead insects."

She ignored me, but I noticed that she didn't deny that I'd have to do it again this time.

"Kyle, Ian?" I was broken out of my mini argument with Sharon by Doc's voice. Huh, guess the centipede was smarter than the others. That is to say, it realised what Doc was going to do. Doesn't necessarily mean that it could escape its gruesome fate that I'd eventually clean up. Sucks to be me.

"I think I need some help," Doc continued, "Maybe if you were to carry-"

"No," Jared cut Doc off half-way through his sentence. Ooohhh, looks like things are about to get interesting.

"Jared? Is there a problem?" Doc asked.

"Yes." At last! An interesting meeting that doesn't revolve 'round boring stuff!

"And it is?" Meanwhile, my head was flicking back and forth between Doc and jared like it was some kind of tennis match. And it was _really _starting to hurt my neck.

"I'll tell you the problem, Doc. What;s the difference between letting you have it or Jeb putting a bullet in it's head?"

"Well"

"The difference is, if Jeb kills it, at least it dies cleanly."

_"Not if he misses, then it would be messy" I pointed out. As usual I was ignored._

"Jared," Doc said, "We learn so much each time. Maybe this will be the time-"

"Not likely" I said.

"Exactly, I don't see much progress being made." Jared snorted.

"There's no point in wasting an opportunity," Sharon spoke up. "We all realise this is hard for you, Jared, but in the end it's not your decision to make. We have to consider what's best for the majority."

"No" Jared snarled. _Drama Queen._

_Silence._ I took a moment for his words to process. Did that mean that he was siding with _them?_ That bas... Not even going to finish that sentence. He's not even worth the bother of swearing. Although I did find it quite funny that Sharon, the woman who told me and threatened to wash my mouth out with soap everytime I swore, voiced my thoughts. _Hypocrisy._

I think that the alien fell over at some point, but I wasn't really paying attention to it. I was more interested in the massive fight that was about to start. Until of course it had to say the one word that would get me to listen.

"Jamie," it sighed, "Jamie? Jamie?"

"He's fine," I spoke up, for the first time directly adressing the alien, "Jared brought him here."

"Thankyou" it breathed out before fainting or passing out or... falling asleep? Whatever it did.

After that the meeting was fairly boring again. It was mainly just debates against what to do with the alien.

Eventually Jared and Jeb decided to keep it. Jeb stopping all the protests, _and there were plenty, _with his stupid reminder about who's house it was. And his gun, of course, you can't forget his gun.

* * *

><p>I stared at the small mirror in my part of the room sinking into my own thoughts. Jamie was already asleep. I could tell because of the heavy snores that reminded me of a bear.<p>

There was something odd about this new alien that disturbed me slightly. Originally I thought it was the way that it recognised everyone but I immediately dismissed that as stupidity. Of course it could tell who people were, it would've absorbed Melanie's memories. But it continually had all of these awkward pauses. And it's face reminded me of the one I got when I went into a daydream or started talking to myself.

I shuddered; thinking about the soul brought back old unwanted memories. It wasn't conscious, but for the second time that day I found myself looking into the mirror, but this time my reflection was different. Had anyone seen me now, I had no doubt that I would be locked up with Melanie Stryder. Brushing my hair to the side of my face, I rubbed my hand slightly up and down the back my neck, feeling the smooth skin in some spots and then the hard, rough texture in others. Taking my hand away I twisted around so at just the right angle I could see the small pink scar that was still there, just as it had been for years now. A constant reminder that I wasn't always human. And I still am not.

**Alright that's it for now. Remember, if you read it, review it.**


	4. Chapter 3 Melanie

**Alright this is by far, the **_**longest **_**chapter that I have ever written, of anything, ever. And I wrote it all within the time space of an hour. I'm quite proud of myself really. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter.**

**Oh and I don't own The Host.**

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><p>"I <em>still <em>can't believe that you were dumb enough to try and kill that thing!" I laughed.

"Shut up, Lyss" Kyle mumbled while nursing his broken, bloody nose.

I laughed even harder, but at least attempted to control my giggles as I saw the brothers cross looks, "I'm sorry, but it's just so funny."

"Lyss, it's not that funny, just get over it. _End of conversation." _Ian got out through clenched teeth, subtly nodding towards the door.

"What do you mean 'it's not that funny?' It's hilarious, the whole world,... well house, deserves to know that... Kyle walked into a wall!" I finished my sentence, hurriedly making up a lie on the spot as I realised what Ian was pointing out.

"What! I didn't walk into a wall!" Kyle shouted.

I kicked his legs from under the table, giving him my famous _shut-the-hell-up _looks.

"You walked into a wall?" Jamie asked Kyle, a grin lighting up his face.

Kyle _finally _getting the message, just shrugged and looked away.

Jamie snickered, "So, more interesting than Kyle, I heard, that Jeb found a new alien."

I froze slightly and shared an alarmed look with Ian. Kyle however, amazing actor that he is, just laughed and asked, "How could anything be more interesting than me?"

Of course, for all of Kyle O'Shea's acting skills, he was a terrible liar. So the whole 'I don't really care about the parasite's' attitude told Jamie that something was off.

He gave me a questioning look which I avoided by looking out the window away from him. Hey, I never claimed to be a good liar.

However, Jamie just shrugged and dropped the subject as if it were nothing interesting. Of course that made _me _suspicious. He dropped it way to quickly to actually forget about, he'd probably ask someone else about it later. Someone he could trust to tell him the truth. Someone like his best... friend. DRAT! Why, oh _why, _did I ever agree to form such a friendship with him.

So naturally, when Kyle and Ian had left he cornered me.

"Y'know, I also heard something else _very _interesting about the soul that was caught," he said casually. I don't know how he did it, make his voice sound happy and cheerful yet at the same time start to glare at you.

"And what was that?" I asked.

"Her name's Melanie Stryder." Crap, okay this was so not meant to happen. Okay Lyssa, keep calm, you can talk your way out of this, just play dumb.

"Melanie Stryder? What a coincidence, isn't that your sister's name?" I inwardly cringed. Yeah, those are my magnificent lying skills on show again.

Jamie closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "I'm asking you this because you're my friend and I trust you. But... can you please... show me where she is?"

"Woah, woah, woah! No can do Jamie. I mean, firstly, we don't even know that she's your sister," he looked at me with one of those classical 'Are-you-an-idiot?' looks that I get so often, "And even then, the parasite is heavily guarded by a person with anger issues who is armed with a gun. Not a combination that I like, and it's not like you can just go up to Jared and ask him if you can see the soul, because I know and you know that I'm the only person stupid enough to agree... except maybe Jeb, if you begged and-"

"ALYSSA!" Jamie shouted.

I stopped my rant and looked at him.

"Please," he begged, giving me his famous puppy dog eyes.

I sighed. "Fine," I finally caved in, "But we go spy mode, okay. That means we look from a distance. We don't talk to it, we don't let it talk to us, we don't let it see us, we don't let Jared see us, We don't let Jared know that we were here, we don't let anyone know that we were here, okay?"

He nodded eagerly, quickly agreeing with my terms.

"And drop the joy and excitement, okay? We're not here to see your sister. It's just a body, she's not in there," I added seeing the anticipation that lay in his eyes.

I led him down to the where the tunnel with the parasite was before stopping him around the corner from where Jared was normally on guard. There I told him to wait and went ahead on my own. I wanted to make sure that Jeb hadn't given Jared his gun. I didn't want to bring Jamie to see a dead body, I mean it would suck to be told that your sister was alive only to find that her boyfriend had shot her. And on a more selfish note, I myself didn't want to be shot by an angry Jared.

Though to my surprise Jared wasn't there. Nobody was.

"Okay Jamie, you can come out here now" I called rather cheerfully. Not that I was happy that the centipede was out, but I just didn't particularly want to take Jamie to see it in the first place. "They're not here."

"What do you mean 'they're not here?'"

"Well I mean that the either your sister and Jared or maybe Jeb can both turn invisible or no ones there. And yes, I have got the right tunnel."

Jamie sighed, "Well they can't have just disappeared."

"Well, for Pete's sake! Can't nobody keep a secret around this place for more'n twenty-four hours?" A terribly familiar voice shouted. Well so much for spy mode.

"Uh, Jamie?" I said nervously, "I think I found them."

I could see Melanie standing with Jeb looking much like she did when I first saw her... except for the fact that I think she was crying... Oh well, I was more relieved that it was Jeb she was with, not Jared. If she was with Jared there would've been hell to pay.

"Jeb," Jamie greeted.

"...Hi," I said, slightly weary.

"Whatcha doing here kid?" Jeb asked Jamie.

"That's okay, you can just ignore that I'm here. I mean it's not like I said 'hi' or anything..." I stated rather annoyed at the 'let's-ignore-Alyssa' routine that everyone was starting to take up as a daily ritual.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jamie replied in the same sharp tone that Jeb had used.

"Okay, so you know, and that's thanks to _you, _I'm assuming," the last part was added sharply to me. So he wasn't ignoring me after all! Oh I've never been so happy! "What good does that do you, eh? We only wanted to-"

"To protect me?" Jamie interrupted. He was forming quite a nasty habit of that.

"Fine, Jamie. So you don't need protecting. What do you want?"

"I – I want to talk with her..." I sent him a sharp look, "With it," he corrected himself.

I rolled my eyes, "Honestly Jamie, What happened to spy mode, huh? That's four rules that you've broken already!"

He, unsurprisingly, ignored me. And we're back to pretending I don't exist.

"She doesn't say much," Jeb told Jamie, "but you're welcome to try."

Jamie's gaze flickered to Melanie and I immediately took a step closer to them, just close enough that if anything happened I could grab Jamie and run for it. "You're not Melanie," Jamie stated.

The centipede shook Melanie Stryder's head.

"You're inside her body, though."

Melanie nodded.

"What happened to your... to her face?"

The soul shrugged.

"Who did this to you?" Jamie asked hesitantly holding a finger up to the side of its neck.

"Aunt Maggie, Jared and Ian," I told him.

Jamie looked at me for a split second then his gaze returned to the body of his sister, "You're not Melanie, but you know all her memories and stuff, right?"

Another nod.

"Do you know who I am?" Jamie asked.

"You're Jamie," the soul said. Wow, two words! She's really chatty.

"Right," Jamie said hesitantly, "Then you know what happened to her?"

Oh dear.

"I want to know," Jamie said.

The creature shook its head.

"I want to know, I'm not a kid. Tell me."

"It's not... pleasant," the soul admitted. I miraculously kept myself from laughing. Of course it wasn't pleasant. Her body was taken over by a soul, nothing about them was pleasant.

"Please," Jamie begged, using those stupid puppy dog eyes. Now I knew that even the parasite wouldn't be able to resist those.

The soul took a deep breath before telling her story. "Someone saw her go into a place that was off-limits. They knew that something was wrong. They called the Seekers. The Seekers tried to get her to surrender. She ran from them. When they had her cornered, she jumped into an open elevator shaft."

Wow. That was... impressive. I now had an odd respect for Melanie Stryder that wouldn't likely go away. Not many people had the courage to jump to there death.

"She didn't die?" Jamie asked softly.

"No. We have very skilled Healers. They mended her quickly. Then they put me in her. They hoped I would be able to tell them how she survived so long." The soul admitted.

Jamie swallowed, "Why didn't you let her die?"

He was close to tears. I was tempted to put an arm around him and give him a hug, but that would likely ruin the touching moment that was occurring right now. Plus with my luck and the current attitude of the day, it would likely be ignored.

"I wasn't in on the decision," the soul murmured, "I was still in a hibernation tank in deep space when that happened."

"Where were you coming from?" Jamie asked, mild curiosity toning his voice.

"Far away." The centipede smiled, "On another planet."

"What was-"Jamie started to ask but was interrupted by my worst nightmare.

"What the hell?" Jared yelled. "Damn it, Jeb! We agreed not to-"

"Jeb didn't bring me here," Jamie spoke up. Hey! That little rat! "But you should have."

Oh that's all right then, I thought he was going to shift the blame onto me. Remind me to never think so little of my best friend again.

Jeb stood up, and in doing so caused the gun to roll off his lap and onto the floor. Right next to the soul, who surprisingly scooted away from it. Odd.

Jared however took the more natural and smart approach by snatching the gun off the ground.

"Are you trying to get us killed?" he shouted.

"Calm down, Jared. She wouldn't touch this thing if I left it down here alone with her all night. Can't you see that? She's no Seeker, this one." Jeb told Jared in a tired voice.

"Shut up, Jeb, just shut up!"

"Leave him alone," I shouted back, this was getting out of hand, "He didn't do anything wrong, if anything, I'm the one who brought Jamie here."

"You!" Jared shouted back at me. I'm not going to lie, he's scary when he's angry, but we blew up at each other all the time, so it wasn't anything new to me. "You get out of here _now_, or so _help _me!"

Jamie stood next to me with his fists clenched, "Back off, Jared. You shouldn't have tried to keep this a secret from me," he waved an arm out to point at his sister, "And you shouldn't have hurt her."

"That's not Melanie," Jared ground out, "She's never coming back, Jamie."

"That's her face, and her neck. Don't the bruises there _bother _you?"

Jared sighed. "You two will either leave right now and give me some space, or I will _make_ you leave. I am not bluffing. I can't deal with anymore right now, okay? I'm at my limit. So can we please have this conversation later?"

"Sorry," Jamie mumbled.

"We'll go," I promised, "But I'm not promising that we won't come back."

"I can't think about that now. Go. Please."

I sighed then walked away. So much drama. Well, at least I've learnt a lesson. Never turn down the opportunity to introduce Jamie to the new souls. It's really quite entertaining.

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><p>"Hey Jamie?" I called out just as I was about to go to sleep.<p>

"Yeah?" I heard him respond, his voice slightly muffled.

I got out of bed and walked to his side of the room and found him sitting on his bed.

"You okay?" I asked, "I mean, I know this is a lot, with your sister and everything..." I trailed off and just did what I'd wanted to do earlier and gave him a big hug. Admittedly, I was wrong with my prediction of his reaction. It wasn't ignored. Not in the least.

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><p>Once I left Jamie's mini room I went back into my own part and walked over to the mirror one last time that night, something that had become a routine for me, and almost screamed.<p>

Eyes.

I stumbled backwards and rested on the wall behind me. I took in a few deep breaths to calm myself down before finally mustering up the courage to look in the mirror one more time.

'No' I thought and shook my head smiling slightly. I'd only been imagining it. A trick of the light it must've been. There was no way I had reflective eyes.

_Yet _a voice in the back of my mind said in a rather smug manner, _It's only a matter of time..._

**As I've already mentioned. This is my longest chapter. And I think that deserves some kind of reward. So if you read this then please review.**


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